#like. if that story really had come from a verifiable source. who in their right mind would doubt it <3< /div> Explore tagged Tumblr posts

[x-aefx]

ONE TIME THING - BELLA RAMSEY

Pictures above are not mine

Summary: unbeknownst to you, you meet actor Bella Ramsey. You two hit it off but your paths lead two different directions.

Bella Ramsey x female reader

Warnings: none

Taglist:

Authors note: I don't know how accurate it is for bella to take a bus or the bus being completely full, however for this story, it is entirely accurate.

I use they/her pronouns for Bella.

"I really have to go" your voice sounded desperate now. You were desperate. Your bus would be here any moment now, currently it was three minutes late, you had been on call with your friend, Aaron for 45 minutes, you were sure 15 of those minutes was spent on you trying to end the call. Your phone was sweaty in your hand from your hold and you had messages you needed to open as you had been ignoring them for the better part of the day. You hated texting, mostly because it made you overthink everything you wouldn't overthink in a real life in person conversation.

"alright alright just bring me back something from work" came Aarons voice from the phone. You rolled your eyes, he asked the same thing every day you were working.

"no promise love you by!" You spoke quickly into the phone as you seen your bus approach. Putting the device into your jean pocket you moved closer to the edge of the footpath.

You greeted the driver with a small smile and a 'how are you' as to not seem rude. Once your ticket was verified you made your way down the bus isle in search of a seat. Every. single. one. being occupied.

You furrowed your brows, surely there would be one seat available.

As if the man in the sky heard you, your prayers were answered by the sound of a voice coming from your right.

"hey, you can have this seat"

Turning you faced the source of the voice. You smiled in gratitude as you sat beside the mystery person.

"thanks, I was beginning to think I'd have to stand or sit on someones lap the entire journey." You really were relieved, none of those options sounded appealing.

"It's nothing." The stranger waved your words off.

They sounded nice, you thought, mid-length brunette hair that was slightly wavy under a cap, clear skin that had a glow, they were definitely attractive.

The sound of a notification broke your train of thought. Pulling your phone out of your pocket you turned it on. To no surprise the most recent message was from Aaron.

You didn't bother to reply. You, for some reason, always did bring him back something. He knew that. The little shit.

Sighing you leaned back in your seat. Your mum had been texting you non stop asking about college, if you had finally met someone and when you'll be visiting. You loved her, but she could be somewhat overbearing. You had visited her over a week ago but clearly that was years ago in her world.

Your friend, Annita had also left a dozen messages. One that caught your attention was about how the train she was on was completely full (much like the bus you were currently on) and how her work place wasn't any better.

Glancing ahead of you, you could see people standing in large crowds from the windows. You frowned, what was happening today? A concert? Surely not. You loved music and concerts even more, you would know if one was on.

Taking a glance at the person beside you (who was occupied by their phone) you decided to pluck up the courage to ask them.

"excuse me, do you know why there's so many people crowding around on the street? Is there something important going on?"

Secretly you were wishing there wasn't something too important going on, you didn't want to seem dumb for not knowing.

"the president of the US is visiting. He's giving out free food." The stranger said with a straight face and serious voice.

"no fucking way!" Your eyes were wide and your mouth hung open.

"nah I'm just messing with you. There's a football match on." Their serious face was gone, replaced with a wide smile. Her tone had humour and happiness in it. You were impressed with their acting skills.

"not funny, I believed you! Can you imagine I go around asking people when the president is arriving? I'd be laughed out of the country!"

You wanted to seem mad, but you ended up joining in with their laughter.

"sorry, I don't actually know why I said that." They apologized but began giggling again the more they looked at you and remembered your shocked expression.

"yeah yeah fuck you." You muttered. You looked up when you heard them laugh again. You didn't think they heard it, but you were glad they weren't offended.

Your eyes moved down to her hands. Each finger adorned with thick silver rings. "I like them. Your rings I mean." You didn't realize what you were saying until the words left your mouth.

The stranger looked down at her hands, she held them up slightly to give you a better view.

"thank you. I always like to have something to fiddle with. Especially with being around people constantly" Looking at her you could tell she seemed genuinely happy about being complimented over her rings.

You hummed in agreement.

"I take it your not going to the match?" They questioned.

"and why do you think that?" You responded.

"you didn't know there was one on." She quirked a brow and spoke as if it were the most obvious thing in the world (it was)

"well maybe I decided to go because the charming stranger on the bus changed my mind." You teased.

"I think the charming stranger should be very flattered. Persuading the pretty girl on the bus to go to the match is no easy task." They teased you back.

God.

Why did they have to look at you like that?

Why did they have to engage in conversation?

Why did you talk to them in the first place?

You prayed silently in your mind your face wasn't as red as it felt.

"and do they have a name? Or do they go by 'the charming stranger'?"

They smiled at you. You felt your heart do a back flip.

"I'm Bella." Straightening up in their seat, they held out their hand for you to shake in an attempt at coming across as professional. It would've worked if not for the way the side of her lips quirked as they tried to conceal their laughter.

Copying Bella, you turned slightly in your seat as you shook their hand.

"hello bella, I'm y/n." You smiled.

"so is it decided? Have you been persuaded to go to the match."

You frowned slightly, "unfortunately I have work." You smiled at bella apologetically.

Bella tried to hide their disappointment. She barely knew this girl, why was she getting so upset?

"where do you work?" Bella decided it would be better to change the subject.

"in Burr & co café. On Bernard Street. It's just a summer job until I go back to college." You explained.

"I'll be sure to stop by." Bella promised.

"the hot chocolate is particularly good." You winked. "Anyways, what about you? Are you in college or do you work?"

Bella was hesitant to tell you about her real job. She enjoyed talking to you and it came easy. She didn't want to ruin it.

"I study environmental science." Not a complete lie.

You were about to say something but was interrupted by multiple notifications coming from your phone. You cringed, bella only smiled, a silent gesture to say they didn't mind if you checked your phone.

You shouldn't have been surprised when the notification on the screen were messages from Aaron. Leave it to him to ruin the conversation you were having with probably the coolest person you have ever met, without him even knowing it. Quickly you opened the message.

You rolled your eyes but secretly you were excited to watch game of thrones. All your other friends had watched it except you and Aaron, so you both thought it would be fitting to watch it together.

"sorry about that. My friend invited me to his to watch game of thrones tonight. Nothing important."

Something flashed in Bella's eyes.

"really? Is it your first time watching it?"

"yep. Have you watched it?" You asked.

"I've seen bits of it. Can't say I've watched the whole thing. Are you enjoying it?"

"well it's been really good so far." You answered truthfully. "tonight we're starting season 6."

Bella's eyes widened slightly, they're lips parted and then closed once she was brought back to reality."well I-uh hope you enjoy it."

You frowned slightly at the way she was acting but eventually decided to ignore it.

"from what I've heard it's supposed to be good." You spoke, the bus was almost at your stop.

It would be a lie to say you weren't slightly disappointed that yours and Bella's conversation was quickly coming to an end. You had momentarily forgotten you were even on the bus talking with a complete stranger, you told her where you worked and everything!

Shaking your head from your thoughts you smiled at Bella.

"well I'm getting off now. It was nice talking to you, stranger. I presume your going to the match?"

Bella's smile faded slightly at the mention of you getting off the bus.

"yeah I am. It was nice talking to you too, pretty girl."

You were sure you were blushing now, you were sure bella could see it too.

The bus stopped.

"enjoy the match!" You told her.

"enjoy game of thrones" bella winked at you and had a smug grin on her face, almost like they knew something you didn't.

You rolled your eyes and got off the bus and towards the café you worked at.

-

A/N :

I hope you enjoyed.

P.s for anyone confused, Bella first appears in Game of Thrones in season 6 (their first acting role)

Part two⬇️

[tweedlebugged]

Yes, yes, James Somerton’s videos are down, the evil is defeated, etc etc. But honestly I’m just mad that I’ll never be able to back up my theory that the origin story of his whole bizarre “Sexy Nazis invented fitness culture” thing was just him ripping off the podcast Maintenance Phase. Badly.

(Almost like he built a career off stealing from other queer creators and not checking his sources or something idk)

If you haven’t had a chance to listen yet, Maintenance Phase is an extensively researched podcast from two queer writers (this may sound familiar) Michael Hobbes and Aubrey Gordon, dedicated to debunking myths about health and wellness. The very FIRST episode contains the facts:

1) The Nazis were very concerned about fitness due to fascism-based views of the body, and engaged in group exercise similar to modern calisthenics classes.

2) This kind of group fitness was closely associated with the Nazis in the consciousness of Americans, partially because of Nazi propaganda films portraying it.

3) Americans were less measurably fit than Europeans because they didn’t do the same kind of group exercises, and this was attributed to American softness.

Hypothetically: If you are a lazy asshole who built a career stealing from more talented creators and recounting a funhouse version of history based on half-remembered facts you don’t bother to verify, you very well might have only absorbed those facts initially and come to the weird hot Nazi conclusion (if you’re into that I guess?)

Or MAYBE you do kind of remember (hypothetically!) the actual sequence of described in the episode - that because Nazis were associated with group fitness activities due to propaganda films etc, American physical education turned really quickly from similar styles of group fitness to less regimented exercise activities like sports. This shift meant American children performed more poorly on standardized physical fitness measurements than European children, which was blamed on American softness/decadence.

But this doesn’t support your pre-existing (hot Nazi???) biases, so you cherry pick only the facts that you can distort into a conclusion that DOES. (This may also sound familiar.) Hypothetically!!!

For bonus points! I’m pretty sure the connection between poverty, nutrient poor and carb rich diets, and fatness is also something they’ve discussed in other episodes, but unrelated to the depression or hot Nazis or less hot Soviets (taken with a grain of salt because I am tragically also kind of a lazy asshole just going off half-remembered vibes on this one)

TL;DR: If you heard the bit where James Somerton claimed that sexy Nazis inspired Americans to create modern fitness culture and thought “that doesn’t sound right but I don’t know enough about fitness and the Nazis to dispute it” you should check out Maintenance Phase because I’m pretty sure it’s both uncited source and debunking rolled into one.

[whentherewerebicycles]

ugh I am really struggling with a thing with a former student/mentee of mine. in the week or two of the post-hamas attack aftermath I posted something on instagram that was basically like, i feel an obligation to be an informed global citizen and believe me I read/think about/despair over the news every day but I also think it’s ok to really viscerally hate “doing politics” on social media, where complex, centuries-old geopolitical and cultural conflicts get reduced to a sensationalized infographic some teenager designed on canva last night. at the time I was watching people spread rampant misinformation about the hospital explosion when we had zero conclusive information, and had also just heard jon favreau talking about research indicating that something like 80% of the images and videos people were sharing on social media weren’t actually FROM the current conflict or couldn’t be verified as real. and idk I also have some private thoughts about how american leftists in particular really glom onto this issue because we perceive israelis as ‘white people’ and palestinians as people of color and we get to feel like we are exorcising our own country’s racial demons by advocating for the expulsion of the israeli people from land that many of them actually have deep historical ties to and at least a semi-legitimate cultural and religious claim to inhabiting.

to be clear I think the current israeli government is pretty much your trump-inspired shitty/evil right-wing militaristic populist movement and I feel like their response has squandered every single ounce of empathy garnered by the hamas attacks!! but idk I guess what I want to carve out space for is like, the right to say I AM NOT AN EXPERT HERE. I DO NOT HAVE DEEP ENOUGH KNOWLEDGE TO FULLY UNDERSTAND THE ROOTS OF THIS CONFLICT. I WORRY ABOUT SPREADING DANGEROUS MISINFORMATION IN BOTH DIRECTIONS IF I SHARE UNVERIFIED SOURCES OR REDUCTIVE TAKES. ALSO I AM A PRIVATE CITIZEN AND I DO NOT HAVE A “PLATFORM” JUST BECAUSE I HAVE A SOCIAL MEDIA ACCOUNT. I RESERVE THE RIGHT TO BE CONFUSED, TO NOT PASS SNAP JUDGMENTS ON RAPIDLY EVOLVING INTERNATIONAL INCIDENTS, AND TO ENGAGE IN POLITICS BY MEANS OTHER THAN SOCIAL MEDIA POSTING. but idk this former student, who I had a really good relationship with for many years, has just come after me in my DMs and keeps sending me posts implying that anyone who is not furiously posting right now is pro-Palestinian genocide, etc etc, and meanwhile she is posting hundreds of unverified stories a day from Arabic-language sources that aren’t just like, anti-Zionist but are actively pro-Hamas, actively denying that the attacks on Israel happened, and actively calling for the immediate and violent expulsion of all Jews from the area. dude idk she’s not my student anymore so I think I’m just going to disengage/not respond and continue staying off insta because it sucks out there!! but it sucks!

I also just refuse to experience a war via unfiltered social media posts again. I did that for a month or two at the start of the ukraine invasion and I can’t unsee some of the stuff I saw on telegram. I don’t actually think any of us have a moral obligation to watch or share a 24/7 feed of graphic images of maimed corpses and crying children. I can’t make the violence STOP by watching that content and I also don’t believe that ravenously consuming the most terrible moments of people’s lives is a form of meaningful political solidarity. WHATEVER as you can see I still feel super conflicted about how to feel about all of this but I also have to remind myself that IT’S NOT NORMAL to click through my stories or scroll down my feed alternating between liking people’s cat photos and watching people dying half a world away. we were NOT BUILT to process world-historical events this way and it is OKAY to opt out of watching a livestream of human suffering you are personally powerless to do anything about.

[theabstruseone]

Weeeeeee Wizards of the Coast opened a whole fucking can of worms. In the new Dungeons & Dragons sourcebook, Bigby Presents Glory of the Giants, Wizards hired a "freelance artist" to use algorithmic generative tools to "enhance" artwork done by actual freelance artists. A long thread about this follows the link to the news story.

Wizards of the Coast took artwork that was created by other freelance artists and used another "artist" that uses generative AI to "enhance" the artwork. This was done without the knowledge or consent of the original artists.

It should be noted that the artwork in question DID HAVE an actual artist creating it and that the "AI" only performed "enhancements" with some alterations to the art. This means the issue of copyright of art created by generative algorithms is not part of the question here.

However, the issue is this artwork was very likely submitted by the original creators to Wizards months ago, likely no earlier than this past spring before the current hype around algorithmic art kicked into high gear, around the time Wizards was denouncing the use of such tools.

These "AI" programs run off of databases made of scraped artwork, almost all of them unable to provide sources for where they got their artwork and many with founders who do not seem to understand how copyright works (ie Google Images is NOT public domain).

Further, the Terms of Service of these programs mean anything submitted into them is then added to the database to "refine" the algorithm. Again, these systems do not verify if the person submitting them has the legal rights to what they submit to give that permission. They just do it anyway.

So this artwork submitted to Wizards of the Coast before it was widespread for freelance artists to include clauses in their contracts to prevent the artwork's use in generative algorithm databases...was submitted to generative algorithm databases. Without their knowledge.

I'm going to quote what one artist said on another platform: "I feel so genuinely betrayed by WotC [...] Having concepts I worked on ran through a scraping program and turned into slop isn't really how I wanted to spend August."

Wizards of the Coast moved to work-for-hire for most artwork following some licensing issues for early Magic: The Gathering art (though I'm not sure if that applies to D&D art as well), so legally they own the artwork in question and can do what they wish with it...

HOWEVER, being legally allowed to do something does not mean it is ethical or moral to do so. Wizards of the Coast did not even NOTIFY artists they were doing this, meaning they sure as hell didn't compensate the artists appropriately for that level of additional use of their work.

This is akin to Marvel Studios doing 3D scans of background actors recently without informing those actors they were signing over rights to their likeness forever in future projects on the eve of a strike over precisely that issue.

Wizards of the Coast, in allowing an artist to use generative algorithms on the artwork - even if it was just to "enhance" it - has destroyed trust with the freelance art community. Likely dozens of artists had their work fed to the algorithm without their consent.

And to address some defenses I've seen already:

"It was just used to enhance the art, not create it!"

This means the art can be copyrighted. It arguably (and in my opinion) makes it MORE unethical than algorithmic art. If the artwork was created by algorithm, it would only use assets from existing databases. By using it to "enhance" work, it has taken the original art by actual artists and added it to the database without compensation and without their consent or even their knowledge.

"It's just like using any other tool like Photoshop filters!"

Except the original art has been added to the databases of the software companies making these generative algorithms. Photoshop's Diffuse Glow doesn't steal my art and let others make copycats of my work.

"It was work for hire meaning Wizards can do what it wants with the art!"

I addressed this one already but I want to reiterate a point many people in these debates forget:

LEGAL IS NOT THE SAME AS ETHICAL.

Just because you legally CAN do something doesn't make it right.

[demivampirew]

My thoughts on The Witcher/ The Witcher: Blood Origins situation

Disclaimer: This is going to be a long post. I've been meaning to write this for a while. I might do a 2 parts post because it's going to be really long.

Let's start with that stupid, stupid rumour started by Deuxmoi. First, I think it's idiotic to pay attention to what a sh*tty gossip blog says about Henry, especially when they've talked badly about him in the past - they had shared negative blind items with any legitime source, on the style of "someone told me this alleged thing about him"

So let me post first the stupid rumour and then I'll comment point by point:

"I recently got this message and somebody was like, "do you want to know what really went down?" She doesn't say who the source is and if she verified that the rumour at least came from someone who could actually have access to what happened on set; for the way that the rumour is disclosed, it could've been a random person who hated Henry and Deuxmoi took it as legit.

(...)"A lot of unusual demands" which demands? If they're unusual, they should be specific so people can examine if they're actually unusual and he's behaving like a diva. "that made people feel like he wasn't really a team player" this person is talking about Henry in season 1, the same Henry that dehydrated himself to look ripped for shirtless scenes but, sure, he's not really a team player 🙄.

"But in seasons 2 and 3, something shifted" could it be that right after episode 1 of season 2 there was a global pandemic and he had months of solitude to think about his life goals; also he injured himself while filming (such a bad team player, I know) and he might have re-think if it's worth it to keep pushing himself for a show that doesn't respect the IP as he does and that put him on the background except when it's time to promote the show and they use his likeness to sell the final product he's not happy with? "it became really impossible for women to work with, which is always a big problem" even if this rumour is true, I don't see how this could be his fault; as we're going to see next, he's going to be accused of being "toxic" for being a gamer and use gamer language, well guess what? The Witcher became famous through video games, meaning, the targeted audience and the ones who made the IP well-known are gamers. If women feel uncomfortable working with gamers and people who want to stay loyal to the source material, maybe don't work in a show where the targeted audience is gamers and they tend to be opinionated about the adaptations of the lores they love. "But even worse, because the showrunner is a woman" again, how is this Henry's fault? Lauren is the one who agreed to be the person with most power in a show adaptation of a story who became famous worldwide thanks to video games, it's not like she didn't know they were the ones who would watch the show and the ones who she'd have to please. Also, she worked in comic book adaptations before so she can have an idea how passionate (and sometimes toxic) that kind of fanbase could be yet, she accepted the job and all that comes with it. "He would try to overrule her and try to get changes made last minute across the board without her knowledge" so far, I think the only change he made was the lines after Roach's death and, it was because he felt it was an insult to make a joke. Also, it wasn't completely without her knowledge because they had an argument about it before this and she told him to see if he could find something better to say, according to Lauren herself. "(...) The showrunner has to sign off on every minuscule detail down to the bottoms of a costume" this, this is where I want to put stress on. Lauren a few weeks ago tried to deviate the blame from Eskel's death to the writer, Beau de Mayo, because he was the one who wrote the episode -it's worth mentioning that she tried to throw him under the bus because he's the one who said there were writers who hated the IP. She's the showrunner; she's the maximum authority there; she has to greenlight everything for it to happen and, she could've easily said no if she didn't want Eskel to be killed. Also, yes, Beau was the one who wrote the episode but he might have been told to kill an important character in that episode; again, the showrunner is the one who has to supervise everything and if a writer does something that could hurt the story, like killing a character that survives in every other media, she has to say no or change the writer if this doesn't want to. There's no excuse here for her incompetence. This is on her.

"Female writers and directors were suddenly ignored on set, unable to do their jobs" sorry, what?! 🤣 Writers are never on set, their job has to be done before filming the season starts. The showrunner is the only one who's usually on set. As for the female directors, there are only two listed for S2 and one of them said and I quote "Had the pleasure of directing episodes 6 and 7" (source https://www.instagram.com/p/CW8z6KurW2f/?hl=en ) As for s3, the only director attached it's Stephen Surjik -who in the past said how polite Henry was on the set and that he could become a politician because he was so polite to anyone and took the time to greet everyone (https://youtu.be/kcUgoyQSQ1k?t=84 I marked it on the exact time he speaks about Henry)

"He started making comments. It wasn't a sexual thing: he wasn't grabbing anyone or being lewd, but it was disrespectful and toxic all the same." again being too vague and don't give specifics; how was he being toxic? What kind of comments would he make that would make people, especially women uncomfortable? Could those comments be about the script and how unhappy he's with it? He's a famous actor and his reputation is on the line so, yeah, he has the right to speak when he's not happy about it. His indie movies proved his range as an actor but, he prefers to do comic books and video game adaptations, that's his chosen career path so he wants to keep the reputation as someone who cares for the source material and he's going to be outspoken about it. If anyone behind the scenes cannot take a gamer critiquing the work of an adaptation of an IP they love, maybe those people should be looking for a different job.

Then they talk sh*t about him being an addict because he likes to play video games. "He was distracted, he was late, he was obsessive" funny because Stephen Surjik in the interview that I link above said how he was always on time, prepared and knew all his lines and stunts. Also make-up and hair takes him about 2h so maybe sometimes he could've been a bit late because of that. Also, in case this person forgot, he was injured while filming s2, so maybe he could've been late sometimes because he was in pain? I don't know, I assume it must hurt; I hurt my ankle years ago and I was in pain for months. And, again, this could also be a lie because Stephen said he was always ready. Then again with the bullsh*t about gamer language, what language, Karen, what language did he allegedly use that was so disrespectful?

Then back again with the re-writing scenes, I assume it's the Roach scene and only Freya was there and she had no lines at that moment, so it doesn't affect her.

"He decided he didn't want any romantic scenes at all. No kissing, no shirtless scenes, etc" oh Karen, I'm going to fight you so hard on this. I'm actually pissed. As for romantic scenes, he didn't say no romance, he said no romance with Triss; he felt the real love story was between Geralt and Yennefer and he felt Geralt would be loyal to Yen, the fact that there was no romance was a writers/Lauren issue because they went against what the IP says and made Yennefer a b*tch who tried to sacrifice Ciri for power so of course Geralt wouldn't ignore that and just be romantic with her despite what she did. As for kissing scenes, I call it bullsh*t because Henry himself said in interviews that he had no problem with kissing scenes even when covid was (and is) still a thing; he said he'd only be uncomfortable if there was a kissing scene involved and he saw Anya coughing and sneezing, meaning with clear symptoms of covid (https://youtu.be/JldJ9cDzZ1o?t=1081 source). As for shirtless scenes, is it a crime that he didn't want to have shirtless scenes? Correct me if I'm wrong but, Anya didn't have naked scenes this season either. Why is it a problem only if he doesn't want to do shirtless scenes unless they're necessary? Also, S2 was filmed in the middle of a pandemic; there was a hiatus of filming that lasted months where he couldn't go out to the gym and only had a few weeks to properly train in a gym before they resume filming, it's possible he didn't feel comfortable shirtless after a long period without training.

"He wanted complete control over storylines," I think he wanted Geralt to be more than a grumpy dude that says "hmm" and "fuck" all the time. If he's used as the lead actor for promotion, his character should have more screen time and focus on the show. The part about him not knowing about tv structure and budget is bullsh*t. The problem he had was with the script and characters motivations and stuff, things that didn't require the budget to fix; maybe if they didn't go for the stupid Voleith Meir thing they could have afforded other stuff, just saying.

About the "weird alliance" with the witcher writer who was allegedly fired, who I assume was Beau, the one who exposed them for not liking the source material. Could you, Karen, explain more? So far, the only connection I saw was a text message that Beau send Henry after Nightmare of the Wolf (the movie he wrote) was released to see if Henry saw it. That doesn't seem like two people with a weird alliance. Also, if Beau was so toxic, why was he allowed to write the animated movie?

Here's the receipt to the message; the photo was taken by a paparazzi and posted to DailyMail.

"Henry did anything he could to hold up production and cause problems" How? What did he do to hold up production and cause problems? Was it maybe that he challenged a few script points to better the end result? Maybe he pointed out how uncharacteristic was that Yennefer tried to kidnap Ciri and sacrifice her for her powers because Yennefer loves Ciri as if she was her own daughter. Or maybe he thought it was unrealistic that Vesemir would use Ciri to try to create more Witchers, including Ciri herself. There are lots of plot points that could've worried him that it wasn't going to work out and, guess what, it didn't work. Fans hated it.

Ok, assuming it was right about the HR complaints; then, why would Netflix allow him to be in Enola Holmes 2? That was filmed after S2 wrapped. Why would they allow a person who had lots of complaints to go to work on another movie and do a third season of the show he was an assh*le. If this is true, and the part about him sending an email to the entire writing staff (I doubt, even if this is true, that he'd send an email himself, given that even posting on his social media nowadays is a task of his team) if, and it's a very big if, he sent an email to writers, I assume must have been to apologize because he didn't realize he was being perceived as rude or hard to work with.

For me, this is just bullsh*t. Even if this person actually worked there, it's clearly someone, possibly a writer, that's pissed about the Witcher campaign to fire them and re-hire Henry. And, even if this is true, it's definitely an exaggeration as I proved. It wouldn't prove that Henry is toxic but, actually, if women and people there can't take gaming lingo and people are passionate about the IP they love, maybe they shouldn't seek to work in video game-related adaptations -I know The Witcher is supposed to be an adaptation to the books but it was the game who put the IP in the map, worldwide, so gamers and the targeted audience for this.

Ok, part 1 of my rant/thoughts ends here and continues on a new post (I'll edit the post with the link to the second part once I post it)

[herroyalbubbliness]

In Throes of Increasing Wonder

Photo Credit: IG @immortal_amc

From Daniel's past works, it is clear this is someone that is not scared of finding out the truth, digging it out, and confronting people with those truths through his work.

Hate and Ashbury dive into the Haight at its height

Haight- A street in San Francisco named after California pioneer and exchange banker Henry Haight; a 1960s rallying point for drug culture, especially LSD (hallucinogenic acid).

Even with just playing the tapes as he initially receives them, you can sense he is restraining himself and fuming and I want to tell the real story... He cuts it off because that was bullshit. But fuming or not, Daniel wants this story, the truth, and even protects his source's identity when he tells his editor, he is in Russia.

Louis still doesn't address himself as the Vampire Louis (but later on in the finale, he addresses Armand as the Vampire Armand). Does that mean he hasn't fully accepted his identity? Or doesn't know who he is? Or wishes to go back to being human?

As soon as Louis points out his health concerns, Daniel uses his other hand to cover the one with tremor and immediately becomes defensive

Daniel: I know the Emirates are big on privacy and I know that's important to you, but I gotta ask, what does it cost, this haven't-aged-in-half-a-century-killer-views-in-all-directions anonymity?

Louis: Quite a lot

Well having met the Vampire Armand, I wonder what quite a lot meant.

Louis says his purpose of this do-over is "truth and reconciliation"

"Anything that can't be verified, I send to my researcher"

The moment Daniel says this, Rashid immediately stands up and says no third parties. Louis doesn't object to any of these terms. Why Rashid? And Daniel insists on a one-on-one

I love the way Lestat is introduced, lurking in a corner and stalking his prey, Louis.

It starts from a cat-and-mouse relationship and is still at that stage but I believe it would evolve into a cat-and-cat relationship.

I love the introduction of Lestat with the camera panning downwards up revealing his back showing us this is a character who may not totally reveal who he really is. And the camera pans to him looking at the Blue book as a horn diverts his attention and he gazes upon Louis dé Pointe du Lac riding proudly in his car like he owned the street and the camera focuses on his cane.

His initial attraction to Louis is when he sees him pull a knife with no hesitation, a primal instinct for the brother he loves. And as Louis said, you never know who is watching.

Louis' mom was a hypocrite closing her eyes to the nature of the family business while profiting from it and condemning her son and how she completely ignored Paul when he said Louis pulled a knife on him.

Everyone in his family judged Louis for something, at least Paul always said to his face

Louis and appearances, taking on masks for different occasions.

"My business and my raised religions were at odds, and the, uh...latencies within me, well, I beat those back with a lie I told myself about myself that I was a red-blooded son of the south, seeking ass before absolution"

Sadly, Louis hasn't stopped telling lies to himself about himself. He saw what he really wanted smiling and then put on his mask once again to follow his delusion. You know what they say tell yourself a lie repeatedly and maybe someday it will become truth.

It makes sense that Louis could separate the locals from those from other southern states. Because he had a reputation among the locals while the outsiders would stare wondering why this black man could walk into an exclusive white salon.

Lestat asks Louis if he speaks French like he didn't know before and didn't purposely raise his voice just at the right moment for Louis to hear him.

He goes after Lily, who has come to be somewhat a source of comfort and hiding place for Louis and I think she knows the truth about his sexuality and accepts him still. He receives a lot of judgment from home, from the streets, and everywhere. Lily represents his escape room where he can feel safe for a time. Lestat goes after Lily in this dangerous game piercing his core slowly.

That whole meeting was Lestat's lavish introduction to Louis, inserting himself into his safety net

This reminds me of this quote from Killing Eve

"She is a parasite, Eve. She gets into your brain, she eats you up to make space for herself like that book, uh with the hungry worm and all that food, pickles, tomatoes. The hungry Caterpillar? Yes. That's her burrowing in and creeping around."

, getting a rise out of Louis, banter, impressing him( getting the hardest table), emasculating him (speaking to his race, with Miss Lily)

"His gaze tied a string around my lungs, and I found myself immobilized."

"Emasculation and admiration in equal measure. I wanted to murder the man and I wanted to be the man."

When Louis speaks on his business strategy, he is enraptured as if under a spell, gazing upon him in awe and with the same breath enraged as to how Louis cannot see what he sees, how beautiful his whole self is. Lestat was mesmerized and in awe, as Louis broke down the business prospects.

The word "labour", is a condescending word to reduce Louis' contribution to insignificant and justify that even paying him a meagre sum is a kindness and he should receive it in appreciation with a thank you, sir. The audacity!

Paul represents us the audience in this scene, we are impressed and enraptured by his love for these books. We are finding out new information from this mysterious man and he is being vulnerable too. We empathize with him and the next minute swiftly turns to rage and you are confused, alarmed, and realize too late that you probably shouldn't have trusted him. And Sam Reid does a fantastic job of switching between those spectrums of emotions flawlessly.

"A pair of misfit beauties"

The sex scene is almost like a competition especially when both of them start removing their clothes and as soon as Miss Lily is out of the way, Louis makes the first move. And his body movements are with so much longing and like he wants to consume Lestat at the same time, a lot of friction/resistance there, and when Lestat clasps Louis' hands, brings them down as their muscles strain, it's like completely breaking down his defences and bringing him to ultimate surrender.

And as he adjusted his clothes the next morning looking into the mirror, he slipped on his mask with a hint of a smile on his face and reassured himself of his 'faux identity'.

I find it curious that Rashid shows up for the first time since the interview started when Louis is talking about the death of his brother, although one could say he just came to open the balcony.

Discombobulation of Louis. The guilt is borne out of his brother's death. Lestat's first comment is on the elegance of his brother's coffin and where he might be able to obtain one, after all, you know Lestat has fine tastes in everything.

Lestat immediately cleans the blood off his mouth as he removes his black cloak knowing that Louis is scared out of his mind at this point and he needs him to listen...

[notasimpleslater]

Obviously I don't know anything for certain, this is all just me combining my gut feeling with context clues and info from articles from publications like People that verify sources and info before publishing. But the whole thing feels veeeryyyyy slimy, on both parts (if the cheating/leaving his wife for another woman thing is true), but being one of the most influential people in the world and NOT coming to the aid of someone you LITERALLY WORK WITH on what you called the -

- 'project of your dreams', someone who, by all accounts is a close friend of yours (even if there isn't anything romantic/sexual there), is enough to put me off of her forever. Like I said, I just get the very strong impression that she/her team paid off the paps/whoever had information for enough time to get the story out on her terms, then when she didn't get the reaction she was hoping for (her own rabid fanbase turning on her at lightspeed) - - plans to sweep this all under the rug and pretend it never happened, relying on the idea that her fans are so loyal that as soon as she wants to move on from one situation, they'll acquiesce and nobody will bring it up again, leaving Ethan sort of in the dust. I'm definitely not trying to pull blame from him, but Ariana is lightyears more famous than he is and has a long, documented history of this kind of behaviour. - - IF my gut is right and they got caught together and the tabloids were paid off to hold the story until her team could come up with their own version, after the past few days and the absolutely abysmal reaction from every single corner of the internet and news outlet, I sincerely doubt that whatever proof the tabloids have will never, ever see the light of day and we may very well never see Ariana and Ethan interact again. (Perhaps that last part is wishful thinking, but it might be wise.)

Yeah, for sure. The whole situation has gotten so out of control that I wouldn't surprised if we find out soon that they're not even together anymore (they are still following each other on instagram, tho I couldn't say if that's an indication of their relationship status).

Like you said, any evidence the paps have of them together may never see the light of day. But I'm surprised there aren't more pics of them together in general, you know what I mean? If I'm remembering correctly I feel like Ariana often posted pics of her hanging out with Cynthia or Bowen, but did she think that posting pics of her hanging out with Ethan would rise suspicion? Because up until this point, if they posted a pic of themselves together, I would have just assumed they were hanging out as friends 🤷‍♀️

But yeah, it's hard to know where to place the blame here when we really don't know much yet, but Ariana and her team surely have a lot of influence on the media, and this should have been handled a lot better.

[djpaige]

It's got me thinking though...

How would that feel IN UNIVERSE? If you lived in the world of the movie, you're just minding your own business one day, scrolling on your phone endlessly in quarantine, you haven't left the house in months because fucking Covid... and then the reports start rolling in. At first you think it's a prank. You maybe heard about it on Tumblr that that one rich fuck was renting the Mona Lisa, and everyone on your dashboard was upset about that (and rightly so) because why should he be allowed to do that? Why would the Louvre even let him? Rich people are awful and they can just do whatever they want. But then the next terrible thing happened and you forgot about it.

Until one day you see that stupid Supernatural meme. Castiel, tearfully smiling: "I love you". And you scroll down. Dean, stoic: "Miles Braun destroyed the original Mona Lisa". Instantly you're on Google. You have to verify this. There's no way that's true. But the first few results are from reputable news sources. Just little bites for now. "Billionaire's home burns, destroying the Mona Lisa. This is a developing story." Oh shit, for real? Everyone's scrambling. Everyone's hoping and praying that it's not true. Surely the Louvre wouldn't be that stupid? There's no way they gave him the real one? Surely they sent a copy? The Louvre is silent. You can practically feel the public statement being written. It's a day or two before they say anything, because surely they had to spend all that time getting the wording exactly right. And then yeah... it's true. They rented him the real Mona Lisa. And it's gone now. And oh god, the variety of opinions start flooding in. "Oh my god, he burnt the most famous painting in the world???" "It's just a painting, it's not sacred or anything." "HELLO? Why would the Louvre even give him that???" But one thing's for sure, everyone is talking about this.

More details start pouring out from this incident. His house blew up because he was fueling it like the Hindenburg?? And also he murdered someone? You just saw that news report earlier that day. That one business lady from the widely televised lawsuits a few months ago? She turned up dead? And now it turns out that Miles Braun The Billionaire murdered her??? But hey, it turns out that he also murdered that one godawful MRA dude who got banned from Twitch? Two murders and he burnt the most famous painting in the world? Holy shit, is this guy speedrunning The Worst Human Ever?

And it hurts for a long long while. You see the Mona Lisa in a movie from years ago, and it just punches you in the gut. Wow, that's gone now. You see it as a print on someone's tote bag. Went up like the fucking Hindenberg, oh god. You hear that song on the radio, because it's jumped to the top of the charts. I can't believe that idiot murdered two people and destroyed the most famous painting in the world. And there's this feeling of bargaining, of denial, of anger (I mean, pick a stage of grief, any stage), because it's like the end of an era. Last week you could have dreamed of going to France and seeing that painting. But this week? That's done now. Everyone who will ever see the Mona Lisa has already seen it now. No one new will ever get to lay eyes on the original painting. The world you live in now is one where that painting does not exist anymore. You almost want to believe the conspiracies that the Louvre just sent him a copy, because it's just so tragic to think that it's really gone. But it is. It's gone because of Miles Fucking Braun.

The thing is, lawsuits for billionaires end up being... predictable. The guy is so rich that he could totally buy his way into house arrest even though several witnesses have come forward with evidence of the murders. He should go away for life without parole, but this is the kind of thing that the ultra-rich get away with. Except that now... now it feels personal. He can't keep a lawyer. Keeps trying to hire them, but... dude, the Mona Lisa. Every lawyer he tries to hire comes up against the same thing: endless threats and criticism because seriously, you're defending the guy who burnt the goddamn Mona Lisa?? The court has a hell of a time trying to pick a jury, because nobody can be impartial in this one. And though really, of the crimes he's committed, the painting is the least of them. But it feels the most personal. And in the end, because of how gutted everyone is about that painting, Mona Lisa ensures that Miles Braun goes away for two murders, and that his stupid fuel source will never see the light of day. Miles Braun goes to prison. Cassandra Brand is remembered as the true genius behind Alpha. Her sister starts a foundation in her name. Not really a happy ending, but justice has been served.

---

And outside of the movie universe? When you're watching a movie about all of this, and you're left thinking at the end of it "Oh god, I really wish that wasn't the real Mona Lisa, isn't there some way that it could have been a fake so that it wasn't really burnt???"

That feeling is exactly why the plot works.

I've just about come to the conclusion that the reason a lot of analyses of Glass Onion are so desperate to invent a film where the painting that gets blown up in the final act is a fake is because they've internalised the idea that people who destroy art are Always Evil (No Exceptions), so their only options are a. to arrive at a reading of the film where Helen Brand is secretly the villain of the piece, or b. to construct a version of events where she never really destroys any art – and quite understandably, they opt for the second one!

Unfortunately, in constructing a scenario where Helen Brand never destroys any art, they're missing what the film is actually doing – namely, constructing a scenario in which it's morally justifiable to blow up the Mona Lisa.

[ooglywooglies]

i have to make a separate post because the tags were getting too long

but yes all my vampire characters are thin, i even struggle to justify to myself xanthes huge bazoongas because in the lore nyesaya cant justify having a lot of fat on their body because of how infrequently they eat. i had to do a bunch of lizard and deer blood math to come up with a somewhat reasonable metabolism to keep them from having to kill too often.

there are not many vampires running around in universe because theyre fairly weak and its 100% legal to kill them basically at any time for any reason by exploiting a revenge law that exists in order to justify another law that allows vampires to kill and eat 1 human every month or so (im stuck between 1 and 3 months because 3 is really stretching that metabolism problem thin but 1 still feels way too frequent for what a law would allow) they can only do it past 10 pm and when they kill someone they have to report it so it can go on a publicly available list so their loved ones can know who did it. you dont have to verify a relationship to a person on this list to kill a vampire, you just have to be able to name someone on the list when you do, probably, i havent really thought of a consequence for not doing that, there probably arent even any consequences.

(wow alex do you have much of a bias here - LOOK IM TRYING TO MAKE IT BALANCED, OF COURSE HUMANS WOULD SYSTEMICALLY OPPRESS VAMPIRES - i always get nervous people are gonna be like hey this feels similar to real life oppression are you trying to say vampires in your universe are analogous to human minorities in real life? and i mean, i get why youd say that, real life human minorities are oppressed because the majority thinks of them as a threat, vampires are oppressed because THEY ARE a threat. i dont think that means im SAYING human minorities are a threat. i just kind of wanted to draw the logical conclusion of what would happen if a sentient creature like this lived in a world like ours. human minorities still exist in my universe and are still oppressed, theyre probably even compared to vampires IN UNIVERSE. and its like, yeah i have sympathy for the vampires a few of them are main characters, i talk about their oppression more than the real life human minority group characters because idk, im a real life human minority myself and i sort of find my own oppression tiresome and uninteresting at this point. at least in the context of my fantasy story. maybe its comforting to me to explore this through the lens of a fictional alien species, my point is please dont take this in bad faith please i promise i think about the implications and i promise thats not where im going with this im just autistic about biology and politics and magical realism.)

anyway in order to not HAVE to eat super often ive been working on developing ways to slow down their metabolism. its not completely perfect and ive had to throw in some "fine whatever its magic" to cover the cracks but i initially based their metabolism on komodo dragons since theyre a similar size. thats where the lizard and deer blood math comes in, deer i think have a similar amount of blood to humans it was like 10 pints or something. this was so long ago ive lost all my sources, and so if a komodo dragon is good off of like an entire deer for like a month, thats where i got that estimate from. so they have some reptile-like traits like, they dont regulate their own body heat, for the most part. they sleep a LOT like 20 hours a day most of the time, they get tired really really easily, and they brumate in the winter

im not sure if brumate is the right word, thats the reptile word for hibernate but theyre not reptiles, theyre not mammals either

they were sort of just sprung into existence by a human hating food chain based goddess so you cant really classify them taxonomically. its one of those situations that sort of frustrates me because yeah magic does exist in this universe and you cant explain everything in a grounded way

sidebar the magic is very magic and not logic but one thing i like about it is its basically an invisible gas (its also a form of life but thats not really important) so the way its "wielded" is you can basically just form a connection between yourself and anyone else via the invisible magic gas thats constantly touching everyone. telepathy is something that happens a lot in universe especially with vampires because its how they conduct their religion and its like certain beings can just beam sounds and images directly into your brain, especially while you sleep via the connection of these magic particles

preddy cool

[stabbingandorbeingstabbed]

Imnotokay69 in the house

believe women!!!!!

[themineknight]

Not at all, I'm mostly currently just learning where exactly you stand. What exactly you feel like I'm saying.

Yes, I am invoking a feeling of nostalgia from within myself, I suppose, but it's for a time much more recent than most of what you're describing. Going back in History: Yeah, there's better, and worse societies. Both globally, and locally. It's also not exactly a sense of loss in me, more that, when I listen to the stories my parents, and my older friends tell, it all ends up coming down to similar things.

Yes: No-Fault Divorce being illegal, or "We'll just live here because it's all we can do" kinds of community aren't great. I also have nowhere near enough experience with them, or memory of anything even closely resembling that, to want it back. What I feel like I want back is a sense of integrity.

When I was younger, News sources actually mattered. If a source of information wasn't verifiable, it wasn't generally believed. This was before the commercially viable/available internet. Honestly, you could probably even dial it up to before mainstream social media, and make it shorter ago. But nothing feels REAL anymore. Reality goes as far as what people say it is... and it terrifies me that it really is that easy.

Sure, Needing to make a community for yourself because any other way sucks is terrible... but we seem to be back there, in some ways. Reproductive rights for Women are scaled back in a lot of places. Trans and LGBTQ+ rights are being stripped down. People starve, when across the world, billions of tons of food are wasted every year. Money rules the world, but fewer people are getting enough of it to even just scrape by. Hatred for people who are different, in whatever for that takes, has become readily available. Misinformation is rampant, and there's enough people who don't care that it's becoming more and more difficult to even understand what is happening anywhere that might matter.

And then there's the other things I mentioned: While many things from the past century were necessary at the time to make survival easier, those things should not have been left. Knowledge of herbs and normal plants, both medicinal and edible, has eroded to a point that most people don't know it ever existed, despite these things still being in the books of some of the people that yet live.

I wasn't implying you might be tearing into my argument with what I said before. I have simply grown tired of telling people that there is simply too much. We ask for more convenience, and give up tangible things. We ask for security, and give up freedoms. We ask that things stay affordable, and yet fewer people can afford to have their own sanctuary that cannot be taken from them than there's been in my entire lifetime. More and more people live in fear of the same things that caused so many to die not even a century ago.

And I'm just... tired. Tired of being Afraid. Tired of knowing I may never have what my parents had, even if I should work harder than they did. Tired of not being able to turn my head without a sensationalized headline, that boils down to absolutely nothing but hate, or only a grain of truth that may not even matter.

Society is alive. Humanity as a species is thriving, with numbers that could not have been possible without all the advances we have made over the many many centuries. With an understanding of physics, mathematics, engineering, agriculture, and every kind of science under the sun and stars... but it all feels hollow. We aren't changing anything to affect our climate. We aren't making sure that every person can live a dignified life. We aren't taking care of the people that got us here, nor the people of the future. We aren't exploring further into the cosmos, the Moon was all we ever saw. And while we may not be stagnant, it feels like division is winning, and communities as a whole are losing.

Honestly, it's an emotional argument more than anything, and as such barely even really matters on the grand scale of society as a whole... but in the decades I've been alive, I've felt like more and more hate is seeping from the pores of society. Like truth is something that has ceased to matter. Like helping one's neighbours is further and further from people's minds. And it scares me. Because I don't know what the future holds anymore. I can only watch it get made.

A thing I love to do is telling prepper dudes that one of my disaster readiness skills is making stuffed animals. They never get it. Like, my dude, when things get very bad and we're all sharing overcrowded shelters, you're gonna want the power to comfort children. Trust me.

[doberbutts]

I just started ROP and really like it so far. Disclaimer I am a casual Tolkien fan, have read LOTR and the Hobbit and seen the movies but am not super familiar with the Silmarillion so I had no expectations going in as far as deviation from the canon etc. I'm only on the second episode but it's very refreshing to see some Middle Earth residents that are not all just white men. The hate is way over hyped for sure.

I am, uh, not a casual fan lmao, I've dedicated a large portion of my life to buying, collecting, and reading everything with that man's name on it including the non-Middle-Earth stuff.

Once I heard they had no Silmarillion rights and would be largely focused on the Second Age as a result, I dramatically lowered my expectations on it sticking 100% to my favorite bits of canon because my favorite bits of canon are in the Silmarillion and thus won't appear in something that has no access to that writing. And I think a lot of people... sort of... forgot to do that.

I instead decided to take it the same way I took the Shadow of Mordor/War games as a fun return to the vast Tolkien universe with a story that was semi-plausible if you didn't mind a couple lore tweaks. What I don't understand is why a bunch of people who really liked those games can't seem to understand that they have to have the same expectation for Rings of Power rather than trying to make it be a 1-to-1 canon adaption, which we've literally never had.

But then, I'm also a big Lover Of Fanfiction and other transformative works, so I'm pretty okay with adaptions making tweaks as long as the heart is still there. It's the first LOTR adaption to focus on so many female characters, it's the first to showcase people of color as Just People rather than constantly having to justify why they're there or write them off as Bad Guys Only, and I think a lot of the hate is coming from people who hate it for those reasons and know they cannot say so, so they planted other reasons within their reviews and people got swept up in it without actually verifying the source as decent in the first place.

[songofclarity]

Seeing several well-meaning fans point out how Jiang Cheng going into seclusion is rather positive because seclusion is where you cultivate to immortality and strengthen your inner self and find peace, etc., is amusingly similar to that tumblr thread about the children's hospital and color theory.

In color theory, the color red traditionally represents strength and passion. Red does appear to have more positive meanings than negatives ones. Red is a fine color choice for interior decorating!

But when you see the actual paint job, the method in which the children's hospital used that red paint makes it look like someone dragged a dead body all across the floor and left a bloody trail behind.

So yes, seclusion can be a good and empowering thing in theory! But that is not really how the donghua used it to conclude Jiang Cheng's story.

The donghua is an adaption and it had the original source material right in front of it that the donghua team opted to ignore. We do, in fact, know exactly what Jiang Cheng did after the core reveal in the novel:

1. He ran off in a crazed panic to confirm what Wen Ning said was true by asking anyone he could find to unsheathe Suibian. Jiang Cheng's first response was ACTION and to verify. And it was a very public action at that as even Jin Guangyao, already making his escape, had heard about this within a day, which is faster than most people heard about Jin Guangyao's death.

2. When it was reported that Jin Ling had run off from Lotus Pier, Jiang Cheng immediately dropped everything to go and find him. Jin Ling was a PRIORITY over Jiang Cheng's own internal crisis.

So the donghua was grossly unfaithful to Jiang Cheng's characterization by having him behave so passively and, essentially, putting himself before Jin Ling by picking seclusion. No one ever puts Jiang Cheng first, least of all Jiang Cheng, which is why the golden core reveal is as painful as it is healing. ("Congratulations! Your brother loves you!")

The last time we see Jiang Cheng is no longer him calmly and almost peacefully leaving for home with Jin Ling at his side, per the novel and CQL, but rather him crying all alone on a dock of Lotus Pier as he is left behind (again). A few days later, people are just starting to hear that Jin Guangyao is dead, the Lanling Jin Sect have some rough times ahead, Jiang Cheng has gone into seclusion over something, and Lan Xichen will need some time to recover. Jiang Cheng's fate has been grouped with all the tragedies and misfortunes, which are set in opposition to Nie Huaisang's impressive change. There is nothing empowering or peaceful about this transition because the storytelling here is that Jiang Cheng has not recovered from the golden core reveal and all its implications.

More so, Jin Ling's distressed response also suggests that Jiang Cheng's actions do not come from a positive place.

Yes, the clarity bell is a wonderful and meaningful object! It is a fine gift for Jiang Cheng's nephew!

But that is NOT how the the donghua used it! Jiang Cheng's gift appears to hurt Jin Ling, who immediately runs away with his arm over his eyes as if he was crying.

For all we know, that might be Jiang Cheng's personal clarity bell and he has sent it to Jin Ling because the bell has proved useless to him. This would suggest the seclusion is meant to be more of a permanent one.

Jin Ling has thus not only lost his parents, but both of his uncles as parental figures.

As if Jiang Cheng would ever do that to him.

But the donghua really went above and beyond to insult and punish Jiang Cheng in every possible way and I hate that this doesn't even cover half of the damage.

[robininthelabyrinth]

Spilled Pearls Extra 1

- ao3 -

Lan Xichen spent a lot of time learning his family’s rules.

They were important to his uncle, who raised him, and that meant that they were important to him. They were his heritage and his birthright, and anyway he loved his uncle and it made him happy which was good enough for Lan Xichen, but that didn’t make learning them easy or anything. Each rule had to be learned both by itself and in context with others; it wasn’t as simple as memorizing a list and calling it done. You had to learn them and know them and then live up to them to the best of your ability, and that was the work of a lifetime – which Lan Xichen, now six years old, had been informed was an awful long time.

Moreover, though his uncle had never said so, Lan Xichen had heard from the other people in the sect that learning the rules was important because following the rules would make sure he didn’t turn out like his father, who had let down so many people in their sect. Many of the elders said things like that when his uncle wasn’t around, though his uncle never did – his uncle spoke well of their father, although in abstract tones, but sometimes he looked sad about it, too, and therefore Lan Xichen was determined to listen and learn the rules well so that he would never disappoint his uncle the way his father had.

Of course, there were other advantages to learning the rules.

The commentary, for instance.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

1

Talking behind other people's backs is prohibited.

“Unless it’s really funny,” Lan Yueheng said, and – as always – seemed not to notice the way Lan Xichen’s uncle glared at him. “Oooh, actually, let me give you an example, I just heard the best story –”

-

“If you don’t understand those around you, you will be at their mercy, rather than they at yours,” Wen Ruohan said, perfectly poised and with a sharp smirk, just the way he always was unless he happened to be talking to Lan Xichen’s uncle. “How better to learn to understand people than to know what others say about them when they are not around?” His smirk widened. “Look at what people say about me.”

-

“What are you supposed to do if you don’t?” Lao Nie asked, grinning wickedly. “Say mean things about them in front of their faces instead? I can do that!”

-

“I mean, if it’s news, it’s not gossip, right?” Cangse Sanren said, tapping her cheek while pretending to be thoughtful as if it would hide her great big smile. “I’m sure that’s how I learned it, and I was a very good student – no, no, don’t listen to what your uncle says!”

-

“Well, I wish my mother would do less of it,” Wen Xu said, rolling his eyes. He’d come along to visit with his father again the way he always did – he was always tagging along with his father, really, and his father indulged him more often than he probably should, according to both sects’ elders. Not that Wen Ruohan listened to anyone but Lan Xichen’s uncle. “Sometimes I think that’s all she does! It’s boring!”

-

“If you mean what you say and say what you mean, then your friends will never doubt you whether you are in front of them or not,” Nie Mingjue said, then frowned. “I mean, I think?”

-

“Listen to A-Jue,” Lan Xichen’s uncle said when Lan Xichen reported on the discussions, throwing up his hands in disgust. “He’s the only one of the lot of them worth anything.”

“It’s his mother’s contribution,” Lao Nie opined.

“It’s certainly not yours,” Wen Ruohan said. “Anyway, what was wrong with A-Xu’s answer? It was accurate.”

“It has nothing to do with the rule!”

“That’s because I’ve already mastered it years ago,” Wen Xu said cheerfully. Surprisingly cheerfully, given that Nie Mingjue was sitting on him again; maybe he’d gotten used to Nie Mingjue always winning.

Lan Xichen’s uncle rubbed his forehead. “A-Xu, if you really want to go copy the rules on humility a few more times, you don’t have to wait for me to instruct you to do so –”

“He’s right, though,” Cangse Sanren cackled from her husband’s lap. “Madame Wen is an amazing source of gossip, but it does get a bit boring sometimes. You can’t punish him for being right!”

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

2

Do not succumb to rage.

“Unless there’s a very good reason,” Lao Nie said, picking Lan Xichen up in one arm as if he weighed as little as a feather, and Nie Mingjue in the other just as easily, even though he was much bigger. “In the world there are many injustices, and it is your duty to fight against them with everything that you have – if you are wholly above the feeling of rage, then you have forgotten your empathy, and soon will follow the crooked path into indifference.”

-

“The issue is succumbing to rage,” Wen Ruohan said. “You can be angry, or even furious, but you should always maintain your self-control. Once you’ve mastered yourself, you can master others.”

-

“He means get revenge,” Wen Xu said knowledgably. “You get angry, then you get even.”

-

“Oh, rage?” Cangse Sanren asked, rolling up her sleeves. “Well, as it happens, I’m going to go have a chat with your mother, I’ll give you a good demonstration of –”

“You are doing no such thing,” Lan Xichen’s uncle said, exasperated. “Get back here.”

-

“It’s a waste of time,” Lan Yueheng said. “Getting angry takes time and energy. Why not be happy instead?” He thought about it. “Well, I mean, sometimes cursing a little bit when something goes wrong is nice. Even the calmest concoction needs to blow off steam sometimes to retain its equilibrium!”

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

3

Do not disrespect your elders.

“And I,” Wen Ruohan said, looking positively gleeful, “am the eldest.”

“Don’t listen to him,” Lan Xichen’s uncle said at once. “Xichen, you hear me? Don’t listen to him.”

-

“There’s a difference between disrespect and disobedience,” Cangse Sanren said. “Being old doesn’t mean being right, it means that there’s a greater probability that they’ve encountered something in their lifetime that will give them an insight you lack. You should honor and respect their insight, but always make your own decisions in the end.”

-

“I mean, you could always listen to me, instead,” Lao Nie said. “I’m your elder too, aren’t I?”

-

“Don’t listen to either Uncle Wen or my father,” Nie Mingjue said, looking long-suffering. “They both like to play tricks.”

-

“Wait,” Lan Yueheng said. “I’m an elder? Since when? That’s a terrible idea!”

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

4

Do not take advantage of your position to oppress others.

“Don’t listen to Wen Ruohan,” Cangse Sanren said.

-

“Don’t listen to Sect Leader Wen,” Lan Yueheng said.

-

“Definitely do not listen to Hanhan,” Lao Nie said. “At all. In any way.”

-

“Probably best not to listen to A-Xu’s dad,” Nie Mingjue said, and glanced over apologetically.

“No, no, you’re right,” Wen Xu said, nodding furiously. “He’s kind of awful about these sorts of things.”

-

“They’re all being absolutely ridiculous,” Wen Ruohan said. “I’m perfectly reliable on such matters. After all, what’s the point of working so hard to obtain and maintain power if you don’t oppress those that deserve it? If you don’t take advantage, who will?”

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

5

Do not make assumptions about others.

“I used to assume that Cangse Sanren was  a normal human being,” Lan Yueheng said. “Goes to show what I know, right?”

-

“I used to assume that Wen Ruohan was a perfectly normal self-absorbed murderer that would keep his greedy hands to his own people,” Cangse Sanren said, sounding irritable. “And not have perfectly ordinary rogue cultivators followed around by complete weirdos because he’s secretly worried about them like a mother hen!”

-

“I used to assume that people would be grateful when someone rescued them and their husband from near certain death,” Wen Ruohan said.

-

“I used to assume that the funniest thing in the world was watching Hanhan argue with your uncle,” Lao Nie said, chin on his hands. “Little did I know that adding Cangse Sanren to the mix made it even funnier.”

-

“Grown-ups are stupid sometimes,” Wen Xu said. “That’s why you have to verify everything they say for yourself.”

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

6

Embrace the entirety of the world.

“By being righteous,” Nie Mingjue said.

-

“By taking it all over, as far as I can tell from my father,” Wen Xu said.

-

“Depends on what you define as the world, doesn’t it?” Lao Nie said.

-

“Be ambitious,” Wen Ruohan said. “Define it broadly.”

-

“I mean, I don’t think your arms are quite long enough yet, the world’s pretty big,” Lan Yueheng said. “But I pick you up and swing you around, maybe they’ll stretch a little. Want to try?”

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

7

Do not associate with evil.

“I mean, it’s true, but you have to think carefully about what you categorize as evil,” Lao Nie said. “Just being a man-eating nation-destroying inhuman amoral nine-tailed fox isn’t automatically enough to qualify, right?”

-

“That’s, uh, a really weirdly specific example,” Lan Yueheng said. “I feel like at least three of the things on that list probably rise to the level of evil? Or have I missed something?”

-

“Lao Nie said – oh no, not again,” Wen Ruohan said, and patted Lan Xichen on the head before he stalked out the door. “I’m the only evil you should associate with, you hear me?”

-

“I bet she’s got teeth in interesting places,” Cangse Sanren said. “I’ve got to meet her…hmm? Evil? Does that really matter? It’s going to be funny.”

-

“She’s not evil,” Nie Mingjue said. “She’s pretty nice, actually. She calls me ‘meatball’ and ‘pork bun’ and says I’m so cute that she wants to eat me right up.”

-

“I’m pretty sure she means it literally,” Wen Xu said. “Gear up, Xichen! We’ve got to go save Mingjue!”

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

8

Do not tell lies.

“People don’t believe the truth, so why not tell it?” Cangse Sanren said.

-

“Using the truth makes your misdirections more believable and your critiques more devastating,” Wen Ruohan said.

-

“Why would you even want to lie?” Nie Mingjue asked, puzzled.

-

“There’s a difference between not telling lies and not having the slightest bit of tact,” Lao Nie said, rubbing his face. “Maybe you can help A-Jue figure that out.”

-

“Silence is always a good alternative when you don’t want to admit to stuff you’ve done that maybe, just maybe, might annoy some people,” Lan Yueheng said, looking over his collapsed laboratory with a wince. “Not that I’d know anything about that, of course.”

-

“Telling a lie will only get you into more trouble later when they figure it out,” Wen Xu said. “Because then they’re angry at you for what you did and for lying about it. It’s just not worth it!”

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

9

Do not disregard the rules.

“Unless they’re really stupid,” Lao Nie said.

-

“I mean,” Nie Mingjue said, wrinkling his nose. “As a general rule, yes. But it’s different if following the rules would permit injustice to happen, that’s for sure.”

-

“It’s a matter of picking what rule is the relevant one,” Wen Ruohan said. “Be thoughtful, and you can have the moral high ground in any situation…your uncle is irritatingly good at that.”

-

“You’ve got to know what the rule is before you break it,” Wen Xu said. “That way you can decide if it’s worth the cost of breaking it or not.”

-

“If there’s any you think are wrong, you should say something,” Lan Yueheng said. “The rules are a gift handed down from our ancestors and ought to be respected, but each of us has a duty to put in our own thoughts as well – our contribution to the next generation down. Anyway, your uncle will probably be able to put together a reasonable argument as to why changing the rule is appropriate and truer to our sect’s principles than the version carved on the wall. He’s good at that!”

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

10

“I want the rules to be a foundation under your feet,” Lan Xichen’s uncle said. “They should give you confidence in your actions and pride in your family and sect; they should not feel like they are binding you. If they are, you’d tell me, wouldn’t you?”

Maybe if it was just Lan Xichen and his uncle, the two of them and maybe also little baby Lan Wangji and the rather unreliable Lan Yueheng and the even more unreliable Lao Nie, Lan Xichen would immediately and unhesitatingly agree, and then never say anything anyway no matter what he felt. He loved his uncle so much, and every one in a while his uncle seemed so sad; he couldn’t bear to be the one to add more pain and burden to his uncle’s shoulders, already weighed down with the expectations of the sect that should have been his father’s responsibility and would one day be Lan Xichen’s.

But it wasn’t just them, and Lan Xichen frowned a little, really thinking about it. “Maybe,” he said after a while. “Or maybe I’d tell Uncle Wen about it, and then he’d find a way to fix it, or to tell you about it in a way that didn’t make you sad. Does that work, too?”

His uncle looked amused.

“Yes,” he said. “That works. Just remember –”

“Don’t listen to him about ‘oppressing others’?”

“Exactly.”

[azeutreciathewicked]

To add: We have extra challenge because there is a lot of disinformation, misinformation, and malinformation out there, and verified interference and psyops from Russia and other sources. This is making it hard for people to sift through news about the election and chatter on social media to know what is actually going on because there are a lot of deceptive and inaccurate stories floating around. Many people are afraid that their vote won't be counted, or that the process is rigged/unfair/broken. And there are states that have draconian laws meant to disenfranchise voters in various ways. People outside the U.S. often are surprised at how many hurdles we face from registering to vote to voting to making sure our vote is counted (unfortunately, we have a history of trying to exclude groups from voting). It's like you're trying to play a good sports game, but someone snuck on the field the night before to dig a bunch of holes around to trip you up and spread rumors that there are landmines on the field, and during the game they keep throwing stuff at the players and starting fights in the stands. So that is going to make it harder for people to focus on the game because of distractions and hazards. In the face of this, it's been really awesome to see how many people have voted early (which helps everyone by reducing crowds on Election Day and gives more time to fix any ballot issues that come up). There are a lot of experts who have been preparing for the challenges we're facing for years, and we're seeing everyone coming together to help out in their way: quick responses when there are issues with ballots, debunking of dis/misinformation, resources to help voters answer questions, lawyers fighting to protect voter rights when they've been challenged. Most of the people I talked to while canvassing in a battleground state had either already voted or had ballots in hand and were going to fill them out that day before dropping them off. I think that most people get that this is important, and are putting in the work needed to do their best on their level. One good scenario is that there will be clear enough numbers on or just after Election Day to be able to call enough states for a clear winner, regardless of lingering votes left to count. If that can happen, that will reduce fear and uncertainty. But if that doesn't happen, it's important to allow enough time for overseas ballots to make it back and to give people the legally allotted time to fix ballots after Election Day.

It's the Group Project From Hell, but we're getting it done if we all keep helping each other through Election Day.

How is the election going rn? Also when does it end? Idk where to look for accurate results

God I hope you're from somewhere other than the US. 😅

Election day is Tuesday, November 5th. Polling is close, and it's currently a toss up. That doesn't mean it'll actually be close (polling is getting less reliable in some states), but there's a good chance we won't know the winner until a few days later if things go the way they did in 2020.

This is why we're full press on trying to make sure people get out and vote for Harris on Tuesday. Cuz it might come down to the wire.

[ponds-of-ink]

Investigating Patient 46 (Part 2 - Figuring Out the Specifics)

For anyone confused about why I’m going on a investigative tangent about Patient 46, here’s Part 1. Same disclaimer as last time: As much as I’d love to die on this hill, I have to got remain realistic and say that there’s a huge chance that I’m going to be wrong when Ruin comes out. Or when Tales from the Pizzaplex finally covers Vanny/Vanessa, if we get that far.

In case you don’t want/have time to read Part 1 (or the link isn’t working for some reason), however, here’s a recap. In Part 1, I used process of elimination to rule out some of Patient 46’s most popular suspects. I’m going to try to do the same here with “diagnosing” 46 and her circumstances/situation, but I bet this’ll lean more towards speculative stuff this time.

All right, so I’ve narrowed the patient down to Vanny/Vanessa’s “darker Hyde”. While this does free up some concerns about Gregory or Elizabeth, now we have new questions.

*Is Vanessa an Afton we missed somehow?

*Was the custody case even real in the first place or was it made up?

*If it is real, then who is the one with the dad named Bill? Is the dad even named Bill, or is that a red herring?

Let’s start off with the one that can actually get a more clear answer: Is Vanessa just some forgotten Afton kid who got the short end of the backstory stick, since we’ve already eliminated Elizabeth in Part 1?

Well, in one of the Scrapped AR Emails, Vanessa is listed as 23 years old with her birthday being in September. The emails would’ve probably also come out in late 2020 - early 2021, which means her birth year in the AR game would’ve been 1997. The William we know, as far as the FNAF general timeline is concerned, should’ve already had his death by springlocks several years prior.

Also, as Fuhnaff pointed out in his own huge theory about Luis and such, Steel Wool might’ve pushed the date that Security Breach and AR take place a bit more into the future. If this masquerade Easter egg is any indication, then Vanessa should still be 23 but with a birth year of 2012 this time. Which definitely rules out William being “Bill” entirely, since we’ve crossed off Elizabeth being involved in Part 1… Which also means Vanessa’s last name initial is a red herring and she’s something like “Vanessa Adams” or “Vanessa Atkinson”.

This leads to the inevitable question of “So, was the custody case even real in the first place?”

What I’m about to say is more of a story-writing nitpick, but here goes.

If it was completely made up, then why even have the characters bring it up in the first place?? It’d be kinda pointless to leave that detail in for people to find out, only to go “oh it was only a ploy lol”. I understand and even like the whole idea of Vanessa’s using it as a way to say that Glitchtrap’s mind controlling her. But there’s one gaping issue with that.

Both Patient 46 and Vanessa are rolling with the whole tragic backstory thing. The last therapist even points that out when confronting Patient 46 in the last tape.

“…it won't change the fact that none of what you said in your file about your parents was true. The truth is, you had great parents, a great childhood. Why did you lie?…”

Patient 46 had it on the therapists’ record that she had a tragic past, but that was a load of malarkey. And how would the last therapist know this?

��Why don't we talk about the research I did in your past, shall we? Some therapists think they should only focus on information they get from their clients but, some therapists, like me, think it's helpful to find out about clients from other sources…”

Which most likely means that this woman dug through court case records to verify 46/Vanny’s claims. Maybe even talking to family members close to Vanny/Vanessa to really double-check, if patient confidentiality’s not a thing for Fazbear Entertainment.

So, with this information, we can deduce that Vanessa never had that backstory in the first place but someone must’ve. If this court case is real, then who does this story belong to? And who exactly is “Bill”, anyway?

Well… We haven’t really touched on Glitchtrap/William himself yet. Let’s build up some proof that he can even hijack or communicate with Vanessa at all— Vanny aside.

We already know that Vanessa can talk to Glitchtrap through her introduction in Help Wanted’s Curse of Dreadbear DLC, that one early Security Breach trailer with Glitchtrap’s “when I first found you”, that “stay the course” convo hidden in a line of code (can’t remember where it’s from off the top of my head sorry), and some deleted Vanessa dialogue from Security Breach itself. We also know that Vanessa is dealing with this struggle of following Glitchtrap‘s orders in FNAF AR’s December 2nd email, forcing Glitchtrap to look up “how to induce self-compliance” while in her body. In that same email, it’s reported by Luis that Vanessa looked up “help”.

The other emails— both scrapped and released— assist in confirming that Vanessa is starting to gain a second “personality” of sorts. Though, to be clear, it’s most likely Glitchtrap finishing the job he set out to do in Help Wanted: Escape through someone and wreck havoc on Fazbear’s yet again.

Going back to the CDs themselves, pay attention next time to how Vanessa talks in her CDs. A few times, she sounds very… off. Dazed and cold, almost as if she were mind-controlled. The FNAF wiki transcripts of these CDs even marks most of times as her talking “faintly”. So one could infer that she’s even being prompted (or even getting hijacked for a sec) to answer some questions ‘properly’.

Now that we’ve established Glitchtrap/William as a suspect, let’s get to the main topic: If he’s the one with the backstory, then who’s “Bill”? Isn’t “Bill” short for William? How could “Bill” be William’s Dad if they share the same name?

There’s two loopholes to that idea:

(1) The William we’ve been following is actually Bill Afton Jr., but he changed his name later in life. It’d be a weird twist, sure, but at least it’d clarify why we’ve never heard William being called “Bill” beforehand. Not even in the original book trilogy or Fazbear Frights, iirc.

(2) Considering that Vanessa mutters something after “Your dad’s name was Bill?” in CD 3, it could be that William/Glitchtrap was trying to argue that this dad’s name wasn’t actually Bill. Why didn’t he repeat himself or let Vanessa correct the mistake/red herring she made on her (and/or 46’s) file? No idea.

All of this speculative evidence points to this: William “Purple Guy” Afton/Glitchtrap, after so many years of dodging his childhood past, finally has to confront it thanks to Vanessa’s search history literally crying out for help. It’s a struggle involving many missing therapists, but at least William— or at least an AI variant of him?— admits to something the Silver Eyes’ own Calton presumed:

“…Before him stood someone who had spent much of his life fighting like a cornered rat that he had taken on the mantle of bitter sadism as an integral part of himself. He would strike out against others and revel in their pain, feeling righteously that the world owed him his cruel pleasures.”

Maybe not an exact one-to-one, given how much the trilogy and game Aftons differ, but one thing remains true: William had a rough childhood. Or at least a rough enough life to make the man snap as soon as tragedy struck again.

By the way, I’m not the first to come up with this conclusion. @partnersatfazbear and @hunting-at-least-69-witches brought this side of the story to my attention a while ago. All I’m doing is trying my best “Who Shot Mr. Burns?”/Clue-level deductive reasoning to see how to come to that idea with context clues and such.

Oh and uh… Sorry if I didn’t really answer the “Bill” question. I don’t think I can definitively answer that until something gets confirmed, which is a pain.